Recipe: Maia and Ghab's Choco-Banana Pancakes

Pancakes were supposed to be in yesterday's breakfast menu. But I was rushing to be in the office early so I had to beg the kids for a one-day extension. This morning they didn't let me get away with it. Maia forcefully dragged me out of bed the minute she woke up. 

"Pancakes, Mommy!"

"Okay sige, I'll call you when I've prepared the ingredients already. You can still go back to sleep"

"Pero gising na ako eh! Hindi na ako inaantok. At gusto kong mag-mix! Ako ang magmi-mix!"

Okay, I rest my case. So we were up and about by 6am getting everything we needed out on the table. Then she called her Ate Ghabby to help us prepare the pancakes. "Crack the egg Mom and I will mix" My little commander just took over my kitchen kingdom. She actually feels like the expert pancake maker in our home ever since she learned to make one herself so I usually give her the free reign during pancake days. Her dad had to hurry up with his breakfast so we can have the entire dining table to ourselves.

Here's what we needed to make the pancakes:

1 pack 250g pancake mix (I used Maya, my pancakes usually turn out a lot fluffier when I use this brand)

1 tsp chocolate power (I used Goya here since that's what I have on stock)

a pinch of cinnamon

1 large egg, beaten till fluffy

1 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 pieces ripe bananas, sliced thinly

chocolate chips/shavings

How we did it:

1. Beat the eggs till they fluffy. 

2. Add in the remaining wet ingredients (oil, milk, water) and mix well.

3. Mix in the dry ingredients (cinnamon, pancake mix and chocolate powder)

4. Whisk till there are no more lumps. 

5. Add in the chocolate chips/shavings and mix.

6. Heat a non-stick pan (over low fire) and scoop out about half a cup of the batter unto the heated pan. 

7. Top with bananas and  flip over when the mixture start to bubble.

8. Serve hot (you may slather with butter or maple syrup, whatever you prefer to garnish it with. The kids had fun with the butter and the syrup this morning. They finished their pancakes with great gusto).

Enjoying the fruit of their labor. :)

This recipe yielded about three mickey pancakes and four 5-in circular pancakes. It might have tasted better if I dropped some vanilla syrup unto my pancake batter too but I ran out so I replaced it with cinnamon instead. It didn't came out cinnamon-y though because the chocolate probably was more overpowering. I plan to make colorful pancakes next and maybe make some traffic light pancakes just like what my friend Erlaine did with her cutie daughter (and Maia's friend) Kelsea. Pancakes are indeed fun to make with kids! Next time I hope to make my pancakes from scratch (and maybe experiment with other ingredients too). 

Maia Invades Our Kitchen

I love to cook. And one of my dream is to have an industrial grade kitchen where I can spend hours and hours trying and experimenting on recipes. I dream of sharing that kitchen with my daughter. I really do wish that one day this dream will come true. Who knows.

But for now, I am just really happy that Maia is starting to show some interest with helping me out in the kitchen. I have been dropping hints in the past especially after she experienced helping out with cooking in summer school but she never really caught on them. 

Last Tuesday, imagine how elated I was when she suddenly climbed on one of our dining chairs and grabbed the whisk from my hand. Well, we just whipped up pancakes (not even from scratch but straight from the package) but I take that as a good start. I am sharing here  a short video of her kitchen moment. 

I am really now psyched to research on more recipes that we could try together. We'll start with the simple ones while we await the coming of that dream kitchen of mine. 

Here's what came out of that stirring and mixing, by the way. She helped make the first pancake but had to leave me alone to finish the batch so she can buy taho. And I didn't make any attempt to hold her longer since she needed the protein anyways. 

Whole Wheat Pancakes (not from scratch though)